A tiny white-gray-brown bird runs swiftly ahead of me on the sands of the Rio São Lourenço, which is called Rio Cuiabá as well. It is a Collared Plover (Charadrius collaris). I lie down on the sand and let the bird come. It walks here, sometimes there. But over time the wader gets closer and closer. I decide to take a few photos with the 4.0 / 500 on the monopod from the plover, but also from the other waders on the sandbanks. Who knows when to find them again?
In addition to the Pied Lapwings (Vanellus cayanus) I dedicate a lot of time especially to the Collared Plover. With their chestnut-brown neck, gray-brown mottled coat and pure white bottoms, they are very rich in contrast. There is also a black chest band. The male I photograph has a white forehead bounded by a black frontal strip and at the bottom by a black eyestripe. Strikingly are the long pinkisj legs. Collared Plovers differ from most similar species of plovers by the narrow black breast band.
Actually, I wanted to make my way back today via the Transpantaneira. A rain front is announced. If the road is soaked and I have to drive with snow chains, I must pull these down before each bridge, because otherwise I will irrevocably disassemble the bridge and my land cruisers, too. The chains get caught in no time in the fixing iron or in the protruding nails.
Other sympatric Charadrius plovers occurring in similar habitats look very similar. One of them is Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus), the American representative of our Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus). This plover resembles this species in size and structure, but is paler on the upperparts, has dark legs and never has a complete chest band.
The Collared Plover is – like our Kentish Plover – a small, delicate wader of the plover family Charadriidae. It lives on coasts and riverbanks of tropical to temperate America. The Collared Plover´s distribution ranges from central Mexico south to Chile and Argentina.
Like the Kentish Plover, Collared Plovers feed on insects and other invertebrates caught in a run-and-break technique; this distinguishes them among others waders that are normally busy running all the time. The Collared Ploveris usually considered a very shy bird. So I am lucky that I can photograph the Collared Plover so extensively – almost at eye level. Once I can also watch him lying down on the sandbank, perhaps resting. I cannot see that it is a nest on which it sits. Normally a nest is scratched on the bare ground, which is located far above the tidal or flood line on river banks or islands.
To cope with the growing demand for top shots of the rarer species of the Palearctic Bird-Lens is keen to enrich the range of pictures of birds not only in the western palearctic. Trips to remote places like this one to capture images were very successful. The nice image of the blog is only a first impression, what you will find in the gallery in the “Picture Shop” very soon. Just give bird-lens.com a message, if www.bird-lens.com could serve you with an image needed before the new pictures are online.